Early news of the Arsenal line up says that Coquelin has got the nod ahead of Ramsey and Giroud has been dropped to the bench after some disappointing games for club and country. It was widely reported the in France’s 3-1 win against Belarus Giroud was booed off by his own fans and maybe Wenger is taking steps to protect the player though it could be argued he just needs a goal to get confidence and you can only score if your on the pitch.
Bringing in Wojiech for Mannone was to be expected despite keeping two clean sheets Mannone has looked shaky under crosses and with Southampton likely to whip numerous balls in today with Lambert in the box it was obvious to reinstate the Polish number 1. Mannone has shown remarkable improvement and yesterday Wenger revealed that Mannone was free to leave this summer but his recent performances ” have moved him closer to that 1st team spot”.
After a midweek 6-1 drubbing at the hands of Serbia Wales captain Ramsey will be further pained to see that Wenger has chosen Coquelin ahead of him. Coquelin will add defensive security whilst showing his ball-hawk skills in spraying the ball quickly out of defence.
The only other question ahead of today’s game was whether to put Koscielny back into centre-back, though Koscielny was by far our strongest defender last season you can easily see why Wenger has decided to stick with a defence that has managed to keep 3 clean sheets in a row.
In my personal opinion I would have put Koscielny back in ahead of Mertesacker and kept Giroud in for Gervinho but in Arsene we trust. It will be interesting to see which wings Gervinho and Chamberlain line up on but I expect them to interchange throughout the match.
On a final note Walcott on the bench again? More on that story tomorrow.
So the supposed line-up today is
———————Szczesny
Jenkinson-Mertesacker-Vermaelen-Gibbs
—————Coquelin-Arteta——————-
Gervinho———Cazorla———–Chamberlain
——————Podolski—————————–
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****John Cross of the mirror thinks Gervinho will be playing down the middle, I’m sure he and Podolski will interchange but be interesting to see.

lecoq desaves it the boy hs got fearsome charectar
I would have put in Coquelin the boy has a lot more potential then Ramsey whose development has stunted some what. Coquelin is a defensive midfielder yes but he is no slouch going forward has great passing credentials and showed when playing full back last year he can take people on.
I agree with coquelin getting the nod ahead of Ramsey but I would keep giroud in the line up because southampton are quite open and should give giroud the opprtunities to score. Also lets not forget that it took the dutch master: Dennis Bergkamp 7 games to score his first Arsenal goal’s and he did against Southampton where Thierry Henry also opened his Arsenal goal scoring account. History tends to repeat itself and that is why I would like to see Giroud keep his place in the starting line up, besides we have a competent team now who don’t give the ball away so easily, we need to aviod playing players like Arshavin and Ramsey who are not so competent.
Honestly i am fully satisfied with Mannone at our goal base on what he display in our previous two matches and i want him to start in order of Scezny to be fit enough. Also Matersacker has play 3 consecutive matches i will him to be rest then next amtch then Vermalen. I also prefers Conquenlen at Defensive Mindfield than Ramsey. My line up will be:
==================Mannone====================
Jerkins======Kosl=============Verm=========Gibbs
==========Coquen=============Arte==============
Chabo==============Carz=================Gervin
===================Polsk======================
i like to see lecoq given his chance,but would have rather seen giroud in and gervino out!
I agree that Giroud should play as i said all he needs is one goal and you can only score when on the pitch. Shafi did you watch the games Mannone came and flapped at a few crosses albeit it he did pull off some good saves but after the debacle in Olympiacos last season where he tried to volley a shot clear and it went in he has still got to prove something.
I hope coquelin shines today as I really rate him
my line up will be
==================Mannone====================
Jerkins======Kosl=============Verm=========Gibbs
==========Coquen=============Arte==============
Gervin==============Carz=================Polsk
===================Giroud======================
Like the look of that bar Mannone, suddenly people seem to be backing Mannone despite all his past trangressions. The fact that Wenger was willing to let him leave this summer shows he himself doesn’t rate him so much . At the moment Mannone has probably worked himself into goalkeeper number two territory.
Stupid article coq is not replacing Ramsey he is replacing diaby in this squad do your research and stop the laziness.
Mate seriously in the article title i say coquelin is in for diaby. It was a straight choice between ramsey and coquelin for diaby and coquelin got the nod hence why I said it must pain ramsey that coquelin got the nod ahead of him. I have done my research as turns out my line-up was correct so maybe read the article properly before slating it incorrectly.
Get a life mate and stop fncking around.
Well thanks for reading the article
Sorry Arsenalolic is that comment aimed at Arshenol or me?
Not You Mez, but that freak